(the CC was supporting the Vietnam war, not condemning it!)

This may be thread drift, but I guess there's already been quite a lot of drift.

My memory of this aspect of the late 60s and early 70s is now dimming but I suspect Foolestroupes' view may be coloured by his being in Brisbane, Queensland, while mine is certainly coloured by being in Melbourne, Victoria during the relevant period.

I do recall the relevant Pope issuing, at different times, a pair of documents. One was an Encyclical and the other was a Papal Bull; I have no idea of the relevant status of either, in regard to how "authoritative" they are. The earlier one dealt with contraception (De humanitas vitae?) and the local church hierarchy threatened hellfire, damnation and excommunication to any Catholic who dared even question its premises, contents, or pronouncements. There was thunder and lightning in most parishes and even the secular press.

The second document exhorted all governments who had troops in Vietnam to withdraw them (as I recall) as the Pope proclaimed they had no business being there. The Australian Catholic hierarchy's reaction to this latter document was complete and utter silence; to all extents and purposes it had not even been issued. At the time I put all the silence down to the fact that the Australian govt had introduced conscription to service its desire to send troops to the war in Vietnam and the Catholic hierarchy didn't wish to invite a public reaction to the then recent passage of State Aid to non-govt schools, whereby Catholic schools received seriously large amounts of money from the Commonwealth Govt.

Certainly, there was almost no dissension from the pulpit over the introduction and maintenance of conscription (those in the US would call it "the draft"), which would appear to support Fooles' comment I've quoted, but I suspect this was an interpretation by the Catholic hierarchy in Oz rather than a "universal view promulgated by the Universal Church", as I believe it has described itself.

Best of luck with the hierarchy's view on the Beatles.

Cheers, Rowan